Hawk, a 31-year-old wholesome-looking father of two, was virtually unknown outside the skateboarding world three years ago.
Therefore YouTube, the home of grainy cell-phone videos and skateboarding dogs, is going pro.
Skateboarding has gained mainstream recognition in recent years, but it still has negative stereotypes.
This in turn is fueling sales of skateboarding gear and apparel--cargo pants, suede sneakers and the like.
He said he would see him skateboarding and never noticed anything out of the ordinary about him.
Semiao, then a midlevel programmer, saw how skateboarding and other action sports kept showing up in TVads.
And the TV ad features young men skateboarding, reminiscent of the marketing themes used by energy drink makers.
That's not to say that there isn't marketing potential in skateboarding, if you go about it the right way.
In 2002 Nike jumped into the skateboarding market with swoosh-emblazoned shoes and apparel.
Skateboarding doesn't seem like real work, but I'm proud of what I do.
In the early 2000s, when the first mega-ramp was built, it was three times larger than anything ever seen in skateboarding.
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Renee Bernard, 20, a neighbor and friend of Mr. Samuel, said she saw him early Monday morning skateboarding in the neighborhood.
The real problem is that people are wearing flip-flops while doing everything from skateboarding to gardening to running errands, Oswell said.
He sat out the ESPN X-Games in Los Angeles in June, having won 24 medals in snowboarding and skateboarding, including 16 gold.
They quickly locked up bikini videos from Bennett Productions, skateboarding videos from Video Action Sports and a Big Brother-type reality show from Canada.
Here was a sport, not unlike skateboarding, that was dominated by white suburban teen males (n the U.S., anyway) and was played everywhere.
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The two met through skateboarding and made their first recordings in 2005 with a cassette recorder they set up under a mini (skateboarding) ramp.
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Nike gets most of its sales from giant retail chains, not skate shops, but the contretemps was enough to make Nike uncool with the teenage skateboarding crowd.
"Nike has a tainted image, because people consider it as cashing in on skateboarding's success, " says Tony Hawk, the sport's reigning champ and highest-paid athlete.
In fact this 35 year-old is the face of skateboarding today.
One in Los Angeles could feature skateboarding gear and fashion products.
YouTube has produced its share of celebrities: Lonelygirl15, the lip-syncing Chinese teenagers known as the Back Dormitory Boys, and Tyson, the skateboarding bulldog, to name a few.
Had the International Olympic Committee chosen to add skateboarding or surfing instead, we might be watching commercials where Bob Burnquist or Kelly Slater is sporting short shorts.
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No, it's not exactly "wakeboarding" (an unlikely combination of skateboarding and waterskiing), but investing in Lexmark International Group (LXK) has had its share of thrills and spills recently.
Adidas advertises its skateboarding shoes only in skate magazines, and in August it introduced the Summer Skate Series in San Francisco, a one-day event staging contests for amateur street skaters.
Nike was the title sponsor for the yearly event that ran from July 30 to August 7 and which featured not just surfing, but skateboarding, BMX competitions and music concerts.
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Apart from these, the company also sells footwear in categories like aquatic activities, baseball, cheerleading, football, lacrosse, outdoor activities, skateboarding, tennis, volleyball, walking, wrestling, and other athletic and recreational uses.
Atlanta (CNN) -- Todd Vaught has been skateboarding since he was 10 years old, yet he was caught off-guard by a question from the much younger salesman at his local skateboard shop.
Also, while younger skaters tend to prefer the street style of skateboarding that plays out in downtowns and schoolyards, older guys are drawn to ramps and bowls that are easier on the knees.
Skateboarding, to begin with, is a painful sport.
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